Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1911 — SPINNEY JUDGMENT $4,208.31 [ARTICLE]

SPINNEY JUDGMENT $4,208.31

Ex-Treas. of Newton Co. Agrees to Settle Shortage FOUND BY FIELD EXAMINERS In Employ of State Board of Accounts.—Judgment Is Entered By Agreement and Amount Will Be Paid In a Few Days, Says Kentland Paper—Spinney Declares He Got None of the Money. Ex-county treasurer Charles Spin ney of Newton county has cofessed judgment for $4,208.31, in the case brought against him for an alleged shortage in his office. Three sets of experts had gone over the books since he retired from office, and while the set employed by himself is alleged to have reported to him that he owed nothing but instead the county owed him a small sum, the experts employed by the county found about $3,700 against him and the field examiners employed by the state board of accounts —which report is probably reliable—found $4,208.31, the amount he has confessed judgment for. Regarding the settlement reached the Kentland Enterprise says:

The suit of Newton County against Charles W. Spinney, former county treasurer, to recover a shortage charged against him during his four year term of office, came to a speedy termination Tuesday afternoon. Judge Darroch, E. B. Sellers and H. L. Sammons, counsel for Mr. Spinney, proposed a settlement of the case* by confessing judgment to the full amount returned by the State Accounting Board, which sum is $4,208.31. County Attorney Higgins, Judge Wiley and Frank Foltz, representing the county, called Commissioners Skinner, Dickinson and Deardurff into conference and an agreed judgment was entered of record against Mr. Spinney and. his bondsmen for the amount noted above. The amount charged agaiust Mr. Spinney hy Wallace and Sutton, experts first employed by the county, exclusive of the special assessments which the Court held were not collectable under the present suit, was $3,669.94. In view of all facts surrounding the case we believe the settlement made was’ 1 a wise procedure. We are advised that the judgment will be paid within a few days.

When Spinney went in office he was so anxious to have everything run straight that he employed exauditor- Harry Rank of Benton county-—a republican and an expert book-keeper from Expertville—to look after the clerical work of the office. Rank seems to have looked after it with a vengeance, as he went over the books after the first set of experts had reported and told the writer one time when he was in Rensselaer, while traveling for the Burt-Haywood Co. of Lafayette, that there was nothing in the reported shortage; that the county really owed Spinney. As Spinney declares that he got none of the money it would be interesting to know who did. In this connection the remarks of The Democrat soon after the shortage was first discovered, under the heading, “Was Spinney Buncoed?” are of interest. The Democrat has always contended that no man has any business to taek a public office unless he gives it his personal time and attention, and from reports, we get from Newton Mr. Spinney did not do this to the extent he should. It is reported that the settling of this shortage will take Almost every dollar he has in the World.